Welcome to the game!
What you said happened to me in my first year...I was doing an AAU tourney at a local HS and had been doing little pee-wees up to that day...Always taller than the players.......This day when my P didn't show up, it was 8th grade game and one of the kids was about a 6'-9" kid named Greg Oden!!
Partner showed up about 4 minutes in and I survived!
